1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a policy-based robot managing apparatus and method for managing a plurality of robots, and more particularly, to a policy-based apparatus and method for managing a plurality of robots that generates a wide area policy for managing and operating a plurality of different kinds of network robots and transmits and applies the generated wide area policy to the individual network robots.
2. Description of the Related Art
With the recent development of an industrial field, various forms of manufacturing robots capable of performing repetitive delicate assembly work or difficult tasks instead of humans have been developed. On the basis of this robot technology, various service robots are being developed with extension of a range of application of robots to service fields.
These service robots can be classified into personal service robots and professional service robots. The personal service robots can provide support services for the elderly, such as life support or walking assistance for the elderly, education services such as a private instructor or tools and materials for education, and domestic help services such as cleaning up or tidying up. The professional service robots mean robots used for public services or difficult work that humans cannot do, and include public service robots for a guide or helper robot, robots for dangerous work as extinguishing fires or life-saving, military robots, etc.
In order to enable those service robots to provide more complicated and elaborated services, the necessity of network robot technology in which a plurality of robots are connected by a network and performs one application service together have come into the focus, and as a result, the network robot technology has been developed. All network robots are connected to a server through a network. Each of the network robots and communication thereof can be controlled through the server. The network robots provide a complicated application service at a high level of difficulty even though it is difficult for the individual robots to provide the application service due to limitations of hardware platforms of the individual robots. The network robot technology can be effectively applied to professional service fields than personal support service fields. Since the network robot technology provides services through the cooperation of a plurality of robots, the importance of a robot server technology monitoring the statuses of robots providing services and remotely controlling the robots is being emphasized.
As robot application services are diversified and become complicated, interest in the robot server technology of controlling cooperation of a plurality of robots has increased, and associated technology has been developed. However, those kinds of technology are mainly limited to technology for managing a plurality of the same kind of robots. In particular, development of robot server technology capable of controlling a plurality of different kinds of robots is still at an early stage.
In order to use a plurality of different kinds of robots to provide a higher level of robot application service, development of technology capable of controlling and managing a plurality of different kinds of robots is needed.